


Father's Day

by blythechild



Series: Love Bingo [3]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family Drama, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Kid Fic, Long-Distance Relationship, Long-Term Relationship(s), Meet the Family, Phone Calls & Telephones, Reunions, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:56:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blythechild/pseuds/blythechild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reid has a family that he's kept secret for years.</p><p> </p><p>This is a work of fanfiction and as such I do not claim ownership over the characters herein. It was created as a personal amusement. This story is suitable for all audiences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Father's Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a prompt bingo line from the community love_bingo on livejournal.

The bullpen was quiet and dark when Reid’s cell phone vibrated across his desk. He looked up from his laptop, and then around the room, as if all of his co-workers had suddenly disappeared into the ether rather than gradually packing up and leaving for the day. This wasn’t the first time this had happened to him; his focus could be both an asset and a disadvantage even at the best of times. 

His phone vibrated again and he looked down, saw the number and smiled. He grabbed it up quickly and accepted the call.

“Hey there, mouse. How is the visit to Grandma’s going?”

_“Hi Dad!”_

Her voice sounded bright and breathless.

“What have you been doing… you sound out of breath…”

_“I was playing hide and seek with Grandma, but I cheated.”_

“Cheated?”

_“Yeah. Whenever she got close, I’d sneak off to another spot. I hid for almost an hour.”_

The little voice giggled conspiratorially. His heart throbbed in his chest; his daughter was a _serious_ troublemaker and it was one of his great delights in life to hear of her exploits. It also filled him with glee that this behavior was probably pissing off ‘Grandma’ to no end. It wasn’t a charitable thought but Reid had long since given up on being angelic towards that woman - she was never going to like him anyway.

“I bet Grandma was upset.”

_“Not really. She loves me, Dad.”_

A troublemaker and keenly observant - that was his little girl.

“I know, mouse, but you should behave yourself. You are a guest in her house.” He hoped that his voice didn’t reveal the huge grin that he was wearing.

 _“Dad, I miss you.”_ She changed the topic and her tone quickly. _“You never come with us to Grandma’s, and every time we come here it means that I have to miss a vacation with you. Grandma has so many rules and she won’t let me use my chemistry set and she doesn’t like me watching Doctor Who… even Mom doesn’t like it here…”_

“Oh baby, that’s just Grandma’s way, you know that. And she gets to see you far less often than I do. Imagine how hard that is for her. I mean, you miss me, and I miss you every single day - but then we have the whole summer together, don’t we? And I’m sure that Mom likes it there.”

_“No she doesn’t. She rolls her eyes at Grandma when her back is turned and she has that look on her face when she does it.”_

“What look?”

_“You know, that look when she smiles but she’s not really smiling? It’s like that picture of the mommy lions in that animal book you gave me. Showing all her fangs and stuff.”_

Oh, that look. Yes, he knew that look very well and tried to avoid receiving it whenever possible. In the background he heard someone say ‘I do not look like a lioness!’, and he smirked as his body warmed at the distant voice.

“Is that Mommy?” His voice was lower.

 _“Yeah. She wants to talk to you.”_ The little voice huffed. He understood her feelings - they never had enough time together. But even so, he didn’t want her taking out her frustration on her mother.

“Give Mommy a break, okay, Isabelle? She does the best that she can.”

 _“I know.”_ Her voice sounded smaller.

“And summer break will be here before you know it.”

_“I guess.”_

“Izzy?”

_“Yeah?”_

“How much do I love you?”

 _“More than there are atoms in the whole universe.”_ He heard a little sniffle across the line and his heart seized in his chest a bit.

“That’s right.” He swallowed hard. “And I’m always just a phone call away, right?”

_“Yeah.”_

“I’m so happy you called, mouse - it made my day.” He was digging his nails into his palm so that his voice wouldn’t crack. It was well past time that they fixed this situation, for _everyone’s_ sake. “Now, can you put Mommy on the phone please?”

_“Okay. Love you, Daddy…”_

“How much?”

_“Times infinity.”_

“Wow! That is soooooooooooo much love - thank you, Izzy!”

He heard giggling over the phone and then there were muffled noises until a new voice echoed down the line.

_“Hey.”_

“Hey.”

_“She’s been pestering me to call you for the past three hours.”_

Her voice felt warm and close despite the tinny quality of their long distance connection. Part of him melted at the sound, as it always did.

“Is she behaving herself… with your mother, I mean?”

_“Mostly. I can’t say the same for Mother though.”_

“Stop it. I can feel you baring your fangs right now.” He smiled.

_“I can’t help it - she brought up the issue of sole custody again…”_

Reid’s smile faded and he sat up straight as an evolutionary instinct to fight suddenly flooded his system.

“She’s my daughter too, Em.”

_“I’m never going to do it, Spencer - I will never deny Izzy to you. You have to know that. Mom’s just… she’s never really forgiven me for all of this. Or that I gave Izzy your last name instead of mine. She just doesn’t see the sanctity of a family that isn’t bonded by marriage.”_

“Well, whose fault is that, Em?” He hadn’t meant to get into this argument again, but he couldn’t deny that it wasn’t always on the surface bubbling between them. “I’ve asked you a dozen different ways… we have _a child_ together… how many more years will we all be separated from one another?”

_“Spencer, my job…”_

“Is a job that you could do in the U.S., Emily.” He snapped. “With any number of different agencies. After six years of trips to London and only spending summers with my daughter and the woman I love, I don’t think it’s a sexist demand to ask you to finally come home. Frankly, your refusal just smacks of stubbornness now.”

 _“It’s never a question about YOU sacrificing YOUR career…”_ She bristled.

“I can’t get a work visa for the U.K., and I can’t leave Mom here alone. You know all of this, Emily.” He sighed heavily. Why did she always see the insult in this argument and never the persistent love behind it? After all, six years was a long time to wait and hope. “If we’re ever going to be a family, it _has to be you_ that makes the move.”

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line.

“I’m growing old waiting for you, Em.” He whispered. “My life has become a series of holding patterns while I wait for the next time that I can see you both… hold you… finally take a free breath again…”

 _“Spencer…”_ He wasn’t sure but she sounded like she was crying.

“You and Izzy are my air and sunlight. I don’t think that you know this… that you really understand how much I need the both of you.”

_“Stop it, Spence.”_

“Don’t tell me that you care about us and then say that you can’t find a way.”

There was a long pause on the phone with only the odd muffled sound to tell him that the call was even still connected. He wanted to say something, to tell her that he’d never stop loving her, that there had to be a solution that they’d both overlooked - but he couldn’t form the words. It hurt too much every time he saw Isabelle and momentarily didn’t recognize her because she’d grown, or when he’d catch the fading scent of Emily on his clothes after she’d returned to London for another six months. The unit Christmas parties and the barbeques with Hotch and Jack or J.J. and Henry… it was like bleeding out slowly from a thousand shallow wounds. He couldn’t face a lifetime without his family. He couldn’t stomach the idea that Izzy was growing up without a father just like he did, except that he desperately, urgently wanted to be there.

He heard her breathe sharply and he recognized it as the sound of her setting her mind to something.

 _“Okay.”_ She said simply, and then the line went dead.

“Emily? Em?”

He pressed redial quickly but the call went straight to voicemail and something cold and heavy settled into his heart.

“What are you doing, Em?” He whispered to himself.

\----

He was finding it impossible to sleep. Or think. Or eat, or pretty much do anything but breathe, and even that was pushing it. Twenty-four hours and he hadn’t been able to contact his family. He even risked the wrath of Ambassador Prentiss and called her house directly. All Mrs. Prentiss said was that Emily and Isabelle had left abruptly and, no, they hadn’t told her where they were going. Her tone suggested that Mrs. Prentiss was going to lay this latest event at Reid’s door as well. He tried calling their London flat, her direct line at Interpol, and the security detail that guarded Emily during her professional life. No one had heard anything.

Reid alternated between pacing and stretching out on the sofa in nervous exhaustion, but sleep wouldn’t come. He made bargains with himself: wait another hour before trying her cell again, call in his marker with Billes over at NSA and have her cell phone tracked, wait another twelve hours and then go to Hotch with it… even if you have to frame it as a custodial kidnap situation…

The buzzer to his apartment chirped and he looked around in confusion. It was dark out and as he squinted at his phone he realized that it was late as well. He hoped that it wasn’t Morgan and that he’d be forced to lie in order to get him to go away. If he told the truth, Morgan would probably call in the National Guard or something.

“Yes?” He snapped the respond button in annoyance.

_“So, is the offer still open?”_

The building was old and the speakers were crap. He was certain that he’d misheard or that someone had the wrong apartment. It pissed him off that he had to siphon a section of his brain to deal with this.

“What?”

_“Do you still want to make an honest woman of me, Spence?”_

“Emily?” His finger shook over the respond button.

_“Let us in, Daddy!”_

Their voices didn’t sound right, as if they were calling to him from a memory or shouting down a long tunnel, but he pushed his finger into the door button until it jammed into place and raced out of the apartment taking the stairs two at a time. He caught Izzy sprinting ahead of her mother on the second floor landing and swooped her up into his arms as he continued his descent.

“Daddy!”

He mumbled her name over and over into her hair as he clutched her close and used his other hand to hold onto the handrail. He saw Emily halfway down the stairs and didn’t slow down until he had slammed himself and Izzy into her with an impressive crash. Emily dropped their luggage in an effort to prevent them all from tumbling down the stairs, but he held them all firmly as if it was his only mission in life to hold them together.

“Em, thank God… Where have you guys been? I’ve been going out of my mind…”

“We took the train, Dad!” 

Izzy buried herself into Reid’s shoulder with a grin. He’d taken her on a sleeper car when she was four and the experience had apparently made an impression. She could be weirdly patient when she wanted to be and he assumed that she got that from him. She certainly hadn’t inherited it from Prentiss. 

“We saw the Statue of Liberty too!”

He turned to Prentiss, confused. “You went to New York? What for?”

“I went to the New York office. To resign.” Her voice was very low, as if she was telling him a secret. “You said that I was the one who had to make the next move, so I did.”

“Em…”

“No, you were right. I couldn’t keep splitting us all in half any more and I’m tired of trying to explain to people why I’m never with the ones I love, why I’m not married and yet never date anyone, who Izzy’s father is and why you’re never around… The damned job just isn’t worth that. In the end… it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be… signing off on my Interpol career so that I could claim you and Izzy back for good… Who would’ve thought it, right? _Me_ choosing family over career. This is going to launch another decade’s worth of arguments with my mother…”

He pulled her in, heartbeat thrumming through every inch of him and with the stair railing digging awkwardly into his side, and kissed her. He hadn’t meant to linger, but Prentiss held on and invited him closer, deeper, and he just didn’t have to reserves to refuse her. Not now when everything that he wanted had been unexpectedly laid at his feet. Izzy wriggled in his grip and made a noise that suggested that they were doing something gross, so he reluctantly pulled away from Prentiss with a look that promised that he wasn’t through saying thank you to her yet.

“Come upstairs.” He murmured and Prentiss gave him a shy smile that he hadn’t seen in years before she collected their bags from the stairs. He was glad of the railing digging into his back then as he went a little lightheaded.

Reid shifted Izzy to his other arm suddenly and began to tickle her. She squirmed and wriggled and laughed loud enough to have it echo off the walls and rise up over them in the stairwell. He felt himself fill up with one thought: I don’t ever have to let her go again. She shouted and begged him to stop but he didn’t give up until she was breathless and grinning laying limp in his arms and staring up at him with her mother’s eyes.

“Dad, Mommy says that we’re going to live with you now.”

“Yep.” A huge grin broke out over his face to match hers. “What do you think of that?”

“What about my toys? And my chemistry set?” Her little face furrowed suddenly with concern: kid priorities…

“We’ll ship them here, sweetheart.” Prentiss said as she followed them up the stairs.

“We’ll have to find a bigger place.” Reid added. “Somewhere where you can have your own room…”

“And _we_ can have a little privacy…” Prentiss mumbled.

“Hmmm.” Reid nodded as a smile curled his lips out of her sight. “But first things first…”

“You mean like finding a job?” She huffed flatly.

“Going to the museum! The BIG one you always talk about!” Izzy enthused.

“Well, no. I had something else in mind before all of that…” He declared as he ushered his family into his cramped apartment.

\-----

Hotch walked into the conference room and the general murmur ceased without him having to ask. A few faces looked around and noted the change, then they all looked at him expectantly for answers.

“Before we start the briefing, I have some internal news to share.” He began quietly, keeping his face unreadable as the others held their expressions until they knew which way the announcement was going to go.

“As you can see, Reid is not present. He has taken a personal leave of absence effective immediately.”

“Is he okay?” It was J.J., sitting ramrod straight in her seat, all sisterly concern.

“Yes. And I have every confidence that he will return to the unit when his leave is done.”

“Did he tell you why he needed some time? He seemed fine lately… or about as normal as the kid ever gets, I mean…” Morgan’s eyebrows pulled together in a dark V of worry.

“It’s nothing like that.” Hotch raised his hands to soothe them. “He’s in Vegas right now. Getting married.”

Everyone took a double take on that one. Then mouths fell open and eyes widened and shoulders shrugged in disbelief.

“Married?” Rossi arched an eyebrow and leaned forward.

“C’mon, really?” Morgan looked around the table to ascertain if anyone else was in on the joke.

“Waitwaitwait…” Garcia flapped her hands in the air, one of them holding the remote that unceremoniously forwarded the first crime scene slide to the room monitor by mistake. “Dr. Genius is getting married? To _whom_?!?”

Hotch took a moment before answering. He was enjoying this a little too much.

“Emily Prentiss.”

The conference room erupted in a chorus of surprised gasps, cross conversations and various forms of ‘did _you_ know?’. Hotch allowed them their moment of adjustment and then raised his hands again until they fell quiet once more.

“I only had a brief conversation with him, but it seems that he and Prentiss have been engaged in an long distance relationship ever since she moved to London several years ago. He implied that it became increasingly difficult to manage as time went on and that the situation suddenly changed recently. Prentiss decided to return to the States, in part so that they could raise their daughter together.”

“Reid and Prentiss have _a kid_?!?” Morgan looked like he might hit something.

“Yes. Her name is Isabelle and she’s six.”

The conversations erupted again but at a much higher volume. Hotch waited and watched until the shocked looks melted into something more friendly and relieved. He didn’t envy Reid the conversations that he was going to have to have with this group to explain why he hid his family from, well… _his family_.

“I’m sure that you all have questions about this…”

“Darn tootin’.” Huffed Garcia. “And for _Mrs._ Dr. Genius as well…”

“Reid sure is a dark horse.” Rossi chuckled to himself.

“…but I think that we can all agree that its great news. We get so little good news in this room.” Hotch tried to settle the team again. They did have work to attend to after all. “I’m sure that Reid will be more than happy to explain when he returns _and_ to introduce us all to Isabelle.”

Heads began to nod and smiles replace the looks of confusion. J.J. and Garcia appeared to be silently concocting some sort of plan to spoil the only female child of the unit. Hotch allowed himself a small, genuine smile in front of his staff.

“Okay, people. Let’s get on with the briefing.”

**Author's Note:**

> There is a follow-up story to this called [Better Late Than Never](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2149215)


End file.
